BlueSky – Ice Age 2

 

 

 

3DVF : Did you learn animation through the school or by yourself, at home ?   Aaron Hartline: Its a lil’ bit of both. I went to college for 6 months before dropping out. While there, I learned traditional 2-D animation. Landing my 1st job in videogames, I had to learn the computer quick. While most of my animation experience has been on the job, without the solid 2-D principles learned in school, well, I’m pretty sure I would’nt be animating in feature films. It is important to learn the fundementals first, then apply them to whatever medium you choose to work in.

 

 

3DVF : What are tools you prefer and why?

 

Aaron Hartline: Honestly, I’m a bit of a old dog. I really don’t use much ‘tools’ I work with just the base software. At BlueSky there is so many cool tools, such as manipulating the curves in the graph editor, easy to use constraints, and pose library for facial and body positions.

 

 

 

 

3DVF : Is BlueSky got they own softwares for animation ?

 

Aaron Hartline: No, I am afraid not. We use MAYA, with a lot of custom tools to make our jobs easier. BlueSky does have their own rendering software called CGI Studio.
It’s a powerful renderer. To be honest, being a animator, I am not sure of all it’s bell and whistles but I can say check out the short film BUNNY.
The lighting achieved in that short is amazing.

 

 

 

 

3DVF : How did you proceed to make the animation ?

 

Aaron Hartline: Originally, I wanted to be a fine artist / illustrator. Really pouring my emotions onto my canvas. The minute I saw my drawings move, I was hooked.

When animating, I really try focusing on the acting more then the technique.
I’ll grab as much reference as possible before actually starting the animation. Also, I find sketching helps get the ideas flowing. When animating, I usually do step posing. This helps show the director my ideas without going to far down a road, that may need changes. Once the step posing is approved, I will start to smooth out the shot, smoothing out each step pose transition. Lastly I’ll focus on the details such as fingers, breathing, blinks, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

3DVF : Do you work with a video camera to shoot yourself for special expression ? Before proceed to the animation ? Do you use rotoscopy too ?

 

Aaron Hartline: I do videotape myself acting out a shot. It helps me get out my ideas, much like picking up a pencil and sketching out a few key poses. Also Ifind with reference you can see little details that you might not have thought of.

 

I do not rotoscope. Rather, I watch the reference as a inspiration. Once I go in and animate, 9 out of 10 times I’ll do something completely different. But by recording myself, it just helped me get the wheels turning instead of jumping into a shot blind folded.

 

 

3DVF : Can you talk us more about Scrat animation ?

 

Aaron Hartline: Scrat is really fun to animate, he is the Tex Avery of CGI Animation. You can push, pull, stretch, squash this little guy and he keeps on going.

The trick with the Scrat is he is very start and stop. It’s a flurry of motion then sudden stops. The trick is to keep him alive while stopped, we do this by adding eye darts, blinks, fast breathing, twitches, and sniffs.
You can’t add all these in, it’s a bit of what works for a certain shot.
Such as, if he hears a sound, 1st have his ear twitch, then follow that with the eye going towards the sound. Lastly, perhaps a fast breathing, to show he is nervous. It is really these little motions that add to his personality.